(ANTIMEDIA) — Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the representative who recently accused the U.S. of directly arming ISIS and introduced a bill to put a stop to it, has taken a “secret” trip to Syria and Lebanon. It is not clear when she will be returning.
According to Politico, Gabbard’s office won’t say who is funding the Hawaii Democrat’s controversial trip. Gabbard spokeswoman Emily Latimer did say, however, that the trip was not funded using taxpayer dollars and confirmed the visit was approved by the House Ethics Committee.
“For security reasons, we will not be releasing additional details or comments until she returns,” Latimer said in an email to Politico.
Latimer would not confirm if Gabbard was planning to meet directly with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, a man accused of numerous crimes against humanity. A statement from Gabbard’s office noted Gabbard would meet with “a number of individuals and groups including religious leaders, humanitarian workers, refugees and government and community leaders.”
Unsurprisingly, Gabbard voted against a House resolution in 2016 condemning the Assad government for the crimes allegedly committed by the regime. Gabbard has staunchly opposed American intervention in Syria, even condemning previous efforts to do so as she believes this will lead to more instability in an already volatile region.
According to the Atlantic, her trip to Syria may violate the Logan Act, which prohibits unauthorized individuals from contacting a foreign government that’s engaged in a dispute with the U.S. (how many countries would that add to the list of prohibited countries, given the number of disputes the U.S. has across the globe)?
The Washington Post previously dubbed Gabbard the “Democrat that Republicans love and the DNC can’t control.” Her trip to Syria will likely frustrate many of her fellow Democrats.
However, absent from any criticism of her trip is the fact that she is actually taking the initiative to visit Syria for herself and not relying solely on the biased corporate media narrative for her decision-making, something that can’t be said of many of our beloved, peace-loving politicians.
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